Drug Wars

07.31.11

Cartel Chief Admits to 1,500 Murders

Marco Ugarte / AP Photo

Mexican police said Sunday they arrested a cartel leader who has confessed to ordering the murder of 1,500 people. The suspect, Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez, is also thought to have planned an attack on a pregnant U.S. Consulate employee and her husband in violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez last year. Mexican police said Hernandez also confessed to ordering the murders of 15 people, many of whom were teenagers, at a party in the city last year. Known as “El Diego,” Hernandez leads La Linea gang, which acts as mercenaries for the Juarez cartel.